Re: [Harp-L] Race, Gender and Blues

[Mike Fugazzi <mikefugazzi@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wonderful post!  Thank you!

Slightly OT as this is directed more to the whole, "I got screwed", thing 
than the specifics of race and gender, but the model can be applied to 
harmonica and the theme of this thread...

LONG story short (two years at least), I've learned a couple of things that 
I think are pretty much universals that I always kinda felt (even as a 
child), but can now defend with a lot of personal experience:

1.  There are lots of good people good at a lot of good things out there.

2.  Interpersonal relationships trump just about everything.

3.  Ego and ignorance can trump relationships.

Metacognition is a wonderful thing, but it is also quite the beast of 
burden.  My only advice to others is to consider the balcony view of things 
when possible, and assume no malice.  Not so much as to try and be 
optimistic or nice, but rather as a means of self-preservation.

If there ever was a metaphor for the world around me, it would be the world 
of blues harmonica.  It is scary.  I don't know if that is the reality I 
created, or if I am the result of that reality.  I am not huge into the 
whole destiny thing as prescribed by the mainstream, but part of me wonders 
if a part of the journey cannot be avoided.

I still can't figure out things like the Kardashians, Tony Romo, or 
politics, so I try to just not care and realize that as a species we are 
far dumber than we think and that is either something I can't control or 
something that is just the way it is.  Life, unfortunately, isn't fair, but 
I am just as much a part of the problem as the next guy.

Enjoy playing harmonica.  Enjoy things like blues music.  When they 
frustrate you, put them down and do something else for a while.  Try to 
avoid becoming jaded.  It would be easy to hate the harmonica and blues, 
but you essentially let the stuff you are upset about win.



On Wednesday, May 23, 2012 10:21:15 PM UTC-5, Howard Herman wrote:
>
> I have been a lurker and have been quite content to just bask in 
> everyone's 
> wisdom regarding various topics up till now. This is my first post. 
>
> I have carefully followed the thread about the subject of Race, Gender and 
> the Blues. I admit I was clearly warned by another poster, but I am one of 
> those people who has had their blood pressure elevated. 
>
> I do not now, nor have I ever cared, whether a blues performer was black, 
> white, female, male or Samoan. My sole interest has always been to enjoy, 
> appreciate and listen to a great performance by a great blues performer. 
> Greatness was never measured by whether the performer allegedly had some 
> special insight into the blues or "street cred" by reason of possessing a 
> particular type of genitalia or being a part of a specific racial group. 
>
> The article/post I am responding to is just the latest confirmation for me 
> that we have now devolved into a "Balkanized" country with many and varied 
> identity groups seeking various kinds of entitlement. You simply have to 
> be 
> a part of some special group for certain specific purposes and pursuits 
> these days. Positions in all walks of life now have to be reserved for 
> members of various racial, ethnic, sexual orientations, and gender groups. 
> Sheer talent, ability, art, and reaching out and holding the audience 
> spellbound is no longer enough. Is the author of the underlying article 
> that created this controversy suggesting some form of affirmative action 
> for blues performers? 
>
> There used to be an old TV show called "Queen for a Day" where the person 
> who told the most heart-rending, humiliating and horrifying life story to 
> the studio audience was voted to be the "winner" and received valuable 
> prizes. Are we now having such a contest about which person or group has 
> suffered the most with regard to man's inhumanity to his fellow man (and 
> of 
> course that includes women)? I believe that you don't need any particular 
> background or have to "qualify" racially or otherwise to play the blues. 
> How does having ancestors a number of generations ago who suffered the 
> horrible abuse of slavery make the current generation of performers in any 
> way better? Does blackness or "femaleness" uniquely qualify someone to 
> perform this particular kind of music? Should Charlie Musselwhite or 
> Dennis 
> Gruenling (and others too numerous to mention) be considered "less 
> authentic" blues performers because they are of the Caucasian persuasion? 
> I have found their live performances just as wonderful and satisfying (if 
> not more so) as any others I've heard. Should one or both of them be 
> disqualified from playing a gig because there is no other slot available 
> for a black or female performer to play that night? 
>
> I grew up in a neighborhood in NYC among far too many people with numbers 
> tattooed on their arms. They were imprisoned under unspeakable conditions 
> and had watched unarmed family and friends tortured and killed in the most 
> inhumane ways imaginable. These people had "thousand yard stares" whenever 
> there was any discussion (however gently it was attempted) of the 
> Holocaust 
> and their lost family members. There were over 6 million Jews who were 
> slaughtered like cattle. It would be absurd for me to claim that this 
> religious/ethnic experience awards me any "points", "qualifies" me in any 
> way, or should somehow entitle me to a slot as a performer to play blues 
> anywhere. Does having this experience mean that only thereafter I was 
> entitled to credibly play the blues? Unimaginable sorrow and 
> discrimination 
> are not the exclusive province of any racial, ethnic group or gender in 
> this or any other country or human endeavor. I don't see playing the blues 
> as requiring payment of some sort of emotional "ante" in a poker game of 
> "can you top this" played with horror stories. Heartache and sorrow are 
> equal opportunity experiences. 
>
> I am a neophyte musician. My time is better spent working on technique 
> than 
> it is reflecting on ancestral sorrows. But even if I were a far better 
> musician than I currently am, I refuse to accept the premise that my 
> experience gives me some entitlement or credibility with respect to 
> performing the blues. I could undoubtedly argue that extermination is 
> worse 
> than slavery, and that these events I have related happened far closer in 
> terms of time. However, I refuse to make such absurd comparisons and play 
> that destructive game as it does not make me a better musician. The only 
> qualifications I can think of for a blues performer are the quality of the 
> player's musicianship, forming a solid connection with their audience, and 
> how well the performer interprets blues music as an art form. 
>
> Is being sick, sore, lame, divorced, beaten, addicted, descended from 
> slaves, victimized, jailed, fighting in a war, being disabled (or fill in 
> your particular life's personal tragedy) a prerequisite to play or perform 
> blues? If so, we are all qualified because there is more than enough 
> tragedy, death, sadness and heartache in each of our lives for us all to 
> appreciate and understand the blues. I would even go so far as to say that 
> maybe it does help to channel some of the pain inherent in being human 
> into 
> blues music. I just don't think any particular kind of pain or tragic 
> personal experience is necessary. Notwithstanding the roots of the blues, 
> it has evolved to where it does not belong to any one race or group long 
> ago. I refuse to believe that you have to be a beaten down and depressed 
> individual, or rendered inconsolable by a claimed lack of social justice 
> of 
> one kind or another, in order to perform/play the blues. 
>
> My novel suggestion is to JUST LISTEN TO THE PERFORMER AND JUDGE THEM 
> SOLELY ON THEIR MUSIC!! 
>
> Howard Herman 
>